Content on e-commmerce category pages?

Noticed a few of my competitors have around 500-800 words of content on all of their different product category pages and was just wondering if I should do the same.

Is it beneficial for SEO if I added 500-800 words of quality content as well?

If so, I would be adding this content below all of the products at the end of the page, would that be alright or is the top of the page suggested?

If you want to place a large amount of text, do it at the bottom of the page under the products - possibly a small category description at the top and the rest of the text at the bottom.

Do what your competitors are doing.

My ecom site has text boxes with small H3 headings and body copy underneath the product tiles. The same applies for collection pages and industry pages. There's more meat for Google to process and pull out keywords from.
Just make sure that what you write there is actually informative and helpful. Talk about your products in the category, or the problems of a business that's looking for a product in that category. Talk about the 'why' of your business - faster shipping, better returns, better product etc. Don't just populate is with copy because 'no one will scroll that far'.

Yes, content does help.

And having a deep-linked additional page, related to the keyword of the item page , is even more beneficial. But that's 'overkill'

Also , original images; of course.

And a video helps retention be higher usually, which also gives you more rank.

Just a few keys.

Yes

Also content higher up (atleast in my experience) performs better. Utilising hide boxes or read more boxes generally gives best of both worlds

check the SERP for the keyword you are targeting and if everyone has 500+ words content. you need to do that as well.

In my opinion, writing quality content with good amount of word count helps.

Of course, adding the 500+ quality content to category pages would help.

But do it on top of the products, so the viewer should know which category they are visiting.

Before you copy your competitors' category pages, pay close attention to their rankings.

How well do these pages rank?

Enter your competitors' domain names into tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, and you should be able to get a good idea of the impact these pages have.

Generally speaking, it's always a good idea to at least explain your categories but you have to do it in such a way that it helps build your brand instead of basically just being filled with keyword stuffing.

There is a fine line that you need to walk.

I would suggest that if you do decide to go this route, you have to look for the best examples of category page content and see how you can improve on what your top competitor is doing when it comes to this type of page.

You can't simply just come up with your own version and leave it at that.

It might not produce the effects that you're looking for.